I heard from a reliable source that boat had a hole in it the size of Buick Electra !!!!!!!! I also heard that boat was just a facade like those towns in western movies.....didn't even have a port side. I heard.....................hhahhahahahhahahaha

Maybe you want to tell us were you have heard those rather strange and odd things.

I was going to ask if anyone had wind and sea data from the Bounty's last day ....

From Post #25:

Quote:

They abandoned ship 90 miles southeast of Hatteras. The NDBC buoy in the vicinity (34.561 N 72.631 W) was reporting 30.5' waves and NNE winds gusting at 64 knots.

Also, the CG Pilots reported that seas were in excess of 30' when they were extracting the crew from their life-boat making extraction very difficult.

Putting to sea was a very foolish move. Having gotten to where they were, they would have been forced to sail west with the storm southeast of them and then turn southwesterly into the "Navigable Quadrant" but, finally southeast once the storm passed them as they could only scud before the winds which would have become westerly once the storm was well north of them. That would have placed the seas on their beam and it would have been rolling its guts out. The hull would have torqued up and I'm sure that would have sprung one or more seams. Fortunately only one innocent was lost. The Captain, basically, wrote her and his own death warrant.

"It is not so much for its beauty that the sea makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from the waves, that so wonderfully renews a weary spirit."

I knew the wind speed and wave heights. It was direction I as getting curious about. NNE wind makes sense. I do wonder wave direction and suspect on their beam. Imagine that ride? 60 kts on your stern and 30 ft waves on your beam. Wow.

Also, the CG Pilots reported that seas were in excess of 30' when they were extracting the crew from their life-boat making extraction very difficult.

Putting to sea was a very foolish move. Having gotten to where they were, they would have been forced to sail west with the storm southeast of them and then turn southwesterly into the "Navigable Quadrant" but, finally southeast once the storm passed them as they could only scud before the winds which would have become westerly once the storm was well north of them. That would have placed the seas on their beam and it would have been rolling its guts out. The hull would have torqued up and I'm sure that would have sprung one or more seams. Fortunately only one innocent was lost. The Captain, basically, wrote her and his own death warrant.

That was almost exactly what one professional sailor had said on a professional forum. It seems quite plausible. They said also that the electrical installation was so bad that any significant amount of water sloshing around would short-circuit everything and the generators would stop working. That means pumps out of service. Something like that had occurred with the Bounty in 1998. That time the Captain was lucky.

"This has been classified as a major marine casualty due to the loss of life and the gross tonnage of the vessel," Coast Guard spokesman Lieutenant Michael Patterson said....

"This was an unprecedented storm," he said. "What were their sailing intentions? Was their intent to ride it out in what they thought was the safest place to be? Professional mariners know how to take avoidance measures," he added....

Coast Guard officials have debriefed the 14 surviving members of the crew, who were taken to the Coast Guard's Elizabeth City Air Station and turned over to the Red Cross. "We were able to get those initial narratives first-hand from the survivors rescued," he said.

The investigation could take months and involve hearings, which will likely be open to the public, Patterson said.

This was an unprecedented storm," he said. "What were their sailing intentions? Was their intent to ride it out in what they thought was the safest place to be? Professional mariners know how to take avoidance measures," he added....[/url]

Uh oh, someone from the Bounty defense team better move to have him disqualified on the grounds of possessing an excess of common sense...

I found this on sailing anarchy , identified as the last known picture of The Bounty before she was abandoned. From FB
I can't vouch, but no one challenged it. Looks bad. To my untrained eye it looks like the wave is off to starboard and I would NOT want to be at the wheel.

If she was heading south with the storm to port, one would think the waves were coming from port as well.

If she was heading south with the storm to port, one would think the waves were coming from port as well.

She was in northerlies. (Remember it had been strong northerlies for days!)
Heading south.
90 nms SE of Cape Hatteras.
Have a look at where the Gulf Stream is off Cape Hatteras... you can see it on Passage weather.

She was slap bang wallop in the gulf stream. So those waves were going against the 2knot current of the Gulf Stream. That makes them pile up and fall over like waves breaking on a beach.

The "grave yard of the Atlantic" is because of the Gulf Stream. Go in wind against it, and like off South Africa you are in trouble. Deep, deep, do-do.

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